Lena Headey is among the ranks of celebrity moms — including Chrissy Teigen, Hayden Panettiere, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Gwyneth Paltrow — driving the increasingly loud conversation about women and postpartum depression (PPD). In her new cover story for The EDIT, the Game of Thrones star opened up about her experience with PPD (which 1 in 9 women experience) following the birth of her first child — and right at the start of filming season 1 of the HBO hit.
Co-star Maisie Williams talked to the 43-year-old actress about balancing the intense shoot with her personal life right after giving birth to son Wylie Elliot Loughran (with ex-husband Peter Loughran) in March 2010. "[Filming was] really horrendous – I was postnatally depressed but I didn’t know it," Headey said. "I saw a doctor for the medical check, and I just burst into tears. She said I was postnatally depressed and I went, 'Am I? Why is that?'" Headey sought help for her PPD right away. "I saw a great guy and he sorted me out," she explained, "but I did the first year [on Game of Thrones] in that space, figuring out motherhood and going through a weird time personally. It was tricky."
Headey, who also has a 2-year-old daughter named Teddy with partner Dan Cadan, has spoken out about her battle with PPD before. In 2014, she told The Telegraph, "I had postnatal depression, which I didn’t realize for a long time." The star, who has also experienced bouts of clinical depression since her teenage years, added, "I went a bit nuts and eventually went to a guy who mixes Western and Eastern philosophy in terms of medicine and he put me on a course of something that changed everything." And today, Headey's doing better than ever.